Boston’s Inclusive Community Sports Day at Hennigan School April 27

Special Olympics Massachusetts, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and the Boston Police Department will host Boston’s Inclusive Community Sports Day at the James W. Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain on April 27. This is the first time Special Olympics Massachusetts and Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston have partnered with each other for this kind of event. The goal of the event is to come together as a community to celebrate inclusion and wellness while providing information about the work done by Special Olympics Massachusetts and Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. There will be free activities for all ages and abilities, including sports stations for soccer and track & field, fitness activities, yoga, wellness booths, nutrition tips, healthy foods from the Fresh Truck, Boston Police Department ice cream truck and so much more! Everyone is welcome: families, children, teens, and adults, those with and without disabilities, Boston residents and non-Boston residents.

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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, Boston Celtics and City Year Volunteers Host 8th Annual Service Day at Jamaica Plain School

More than 150 volunteers from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and its Foundation, the Boston Celtics, and City Year, joined forces last week to transform the indoor and outdoor learning and recreational space of the Hennigan Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. Joining the volunteers were Boston Celtics Guard, Isaiah Thomas, and “Lucky” the Leprechaun, who hosted basketball clinics for the students. The day began with an Opening Ceremony featuring remarks by Harvard Pilgrim CEO and President, Eric Schultz; and Hennigan Elementary School Principal, Maria Cordon. "Harvard Pilgrim is proud to partner with the Boston Celtics and City Year to help create clean, safe and healthy environments for local students to play and learn,” said Schultz. “We are fortunate to have such great longtime partners who know the value of working together to build strong, vibrant communities.”

Volunteers spent the day transforming the school’s indoor and outdoor learning and recreational space, painting murals in the cafeteria, helping to clean up the neighboring meadow and fields at Nira Rock Urban Wild, and painting at the Bromley Heath Housing Project.

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Awards ceremony for the Phillips Brooks House Summer Urban Program The PBH operates a summer camp at the Hennigan School that serves about 80 JP kids.

More Than a Thousand Gather to Celebrate Urban Summer Camp Awards

A thousand youth, parents and families jammed the Stony Brook amphitheater Wednesday for the annual summer awards program of the Phillips Brooks House Summer Urban Program. The Phillips Brooks House was founded in 1900 in honor of the rector of Trinity Church in Copley Square. It is located at but independent of Harvard University. The Phillips Brooks House operates 12 camps in various locations in Boston and Cambridge, including the Hennigan School which serves about 80 kids. Here are more photos of the event:

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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, Boston Celtics and City Year Volunteers Host 7th Annual Service Day at Jamaica Plain School

More than 150 volunteers from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and its Foundation, the Boston Celtics and City Year, joined forces last Friday to transform the outdoor learning and recreational space of the Hennigan Elementary School in Jamaica Plain, just in time for the new school year. Joining the volunteers were Boston Celtics Forward, Jared Sullinger, and “Lucky” the Leprechaun, who hosted basketball clinics for the students. The day began with an Opening Ceremony featuring remarks by Harvard Pilgrim CEO and President, Eric Schultz; Boston Celtics President, Rich Gotham; and, Hennigan Elementary School Principal, Maria Cordon. “One of the ways Harvard Pilgrim supports the Boston community is by providing local students with the tools they need to succeed in school, including a clean, safe environment and a full backpack,” said Schultz. “We are fortunate to have such strong, longtime partners like Mayor Walsh, the Boston Celtics and City Year, who know the value of working together to build healthy, vibrant communities.”

Volunteers spent the day painting colorful murals and games on the school’s walls and blacktop, enhancing its gardens and grounds and helping to clean up the orchards and meadows at neighboring Nira Rock Urban Wild.

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File Photo: Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, left, at an Aug. 25, 2014 press conference at Boston Police Headquarters.

Murder Charge Made in Death of Woman Who Worked With Children in JP

Prosecutors added a murder charge to gun charges already filed in the killing of Dawnn Jaffier. The 26-year-old woman, who worked at JP's Hennigan School as part of the Boys & Girls Club, died after being shot Saturday at a parade in Dorchester. On Monday, officials charged Keith Williams, 18, of Boston, with her shooting death. Jaffier was struck in the head, her father told media. She was at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Charlotte Street watching the J'ouvert Parade, which is part of the day-long Caribbean Carnival.

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‘A Loving, Generous Young Woman’

The Boston Public Schools released a statement on the death of Dawnn Jaffier, a 26-year-old BPS graduate who worked at the Boys & Girls Club located at the Hennigan School in JP. She was shot Saturday morning in Dorchester during a parade, apparently an untargeted victim of gunfire. The schools released their statement via Twitter:

"Dawnn Jaffier served in two of our schools - the Tobin K-8 and the Hennigan - as a community partner. We are mourning her loss tonight. Our students called her 'Coach Dawnn.'

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Screen shot from Facebook profile of Dawnn Jaffier

Parade Shooting Victim Worked at JP-Based Boys & Girls Club

26-year-old Dawnn Jaffier, characterized by police as an "innocent victim" of gunfire at a pre-Caribbean Festival parade, worked with children at the Hennigan School's Boys & Girls Club. Jaffier was at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Charlotte Street in Dorchester for the J'ouvert Parade Saturday morning, according to the Globe, when shots were fired. Jaffier was taken to Boston Medical Center in critical condition and died there, according to the Herald. Jaffier, a graduate of UMass-Amherst, joined JP-based Playworks after serving with City Year, according to the Globe. She was a coach at the Boys & Girls Club based out JP's Hennigan School.

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Sentence Handed Down for Boy Who Killed Brother, a Student at the Hennigan

The older brother of a Hennigan School student pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of the 9-year-old boy. Juanly Pena, now 15, admitted to accidentally firing a .380 handgun into the chest of his younger brother Janmarcos at their Mattapan home on Feb. 7, according to the Boston Herald. The older brother thought the gun wasn't loaded because he removed the magazine, but a bullet remained in the chamber, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum told the judge in the case, according to video from NECN. Juanly Pena will remain in Department of Youth Services Custody until he is 21 and carry a suspended sentence of three years until he reaches 24.

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Boy Shot and Killed By Brother Attended Hennigan

The 9-year-old whose older brother shot and killed him on Friday in Mattapan attended JP's Hennigan School. The brother, 14, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the Globe. Prosecutors say the older brother wasn't handling the weapon carefully when it fired. The 9-year-old was in the fourth grade at the Heath Street elementary school. The family lives in Mattapan but very near JP, at the corner of Morton and Estella streets.

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